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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johannes Pilch who wrote (120030)	12/29/2000 5:39:27 PM
From: SecularBull	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

You're seriously conflicted in regards to Washington and Jefferson deserving a higher place on any ladder when it comes to the issue of slavery. It would have been much easier to abolish slavery during their time, rather than 60+ years later after the new country's economic development had progressed much further (down the wrong road in the case of the South). Slavery became more entrenched in Southern society and economics as time progressed, and therefore was more difficult to resist than it was at the end of the 18th Century. What is different between Jefferson's fear of the dependence of his slaves on him than the following statement by Alexander Stephens? The condition of slavery with us is, in a word, Mr. President, nothing but the form of civil government instituted for a class of people not fit to govern themselves. It is exactly what in every State exists in some form or other. It is just that kind of control which is extended in every northern State over its convicts, its lunatics, its minors, its apprentices. It is but a form of civil government for those who by their nature are not fit to govern themselves. We recognize the fact of the inferiority stamped upon that race of men by the Creator, and from the cradle to the grave, our Government, as a civil institution, marks that inferiority. Honestly, was this perhaps what Jefferson agonized about? The truth is that the end of slavery was destined to bring about a huge social upheaval, and truly represented a paradox for the masters and the slaves. The masters would have to rethink the finances of their operations, and the slaves would have to start their lives over from scratch with little guidance, and certainly no welfare state like the one that we have now. Yet, it had to happen. LoF